End of an era: Kodak sells patent portfolio for $525 million

With an eye toward emerging from bankruptcy in 2013 Kodak today said it sold its formidable patent portfolio for $525 million to a consortium that will ultimately license pieces of the collection to other companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook.

Specifically Kodak said under the agreements, it will receive approximately $525 million, a portion of which will be paid by 12 intellectual property licensees organized by the consortium of Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation. The Los Angeles Times reports that group not only includes Apple and Google, but Microsoft, Research In Motion, Adobe, Samsung and Huawei.

The proposed transaction, which needs to be approved by the bankruptcy judge overseeing the case, achieves one of Kodak's key restructuring objectives, the company stated, and follows other recent major accomplishments that include an agreement for interim and exit financing for the company's emergence from its Chapter 11 restructuring, and resolution of U.S. retiree non-pension benefits liabilities.

Kodak's sale of intellectual property assets further builds on its momentum toward a successful emergence in the commercial imaging business in the first half of 2013, the firm stated.

Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection in January and has cut about 4,000 employees since then - after slicing almost 50,000 since 2003.

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